ANC members who take the party to court before exhausting all internal processes will be suspended, the party's general-secretary Gwede Mantashe said yesterday.

"The ANC National Working Committee re-affirmed that it is a dismissible offence to take the ANC to court when all the organisational processes have not been exhausted," Mantashe said in a statement.

The committee held its meeting in Johannesburg on Monday to discuss tensions in the ANC Youth League.

Several court cases have been brought against the league in a tussle involving current president Julius Malema and his deputy Andile Lungisa ahead of the youth league's elective conference next year.

A court order prevented the league's weekend congress in the Eastern Cape from going ahead. In Limpopo, provincial chairperson Lehlogonolo Masoga took the league to court to force it to drop disciplinary action against him.

He was disciplined for walking out of the ANCYL provincial congress in Makhado outside Thohoyandou in April, where Malema allegedly told police to keep his supporters away from the voting hall.

He had since dropped the case and was dismissed from the league.

Mantashe said: "Those who have announced their intention to take cases to court are warned to desist from that ill-advised action."

A task team, led by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, had been appointed by the party to try and resolve tensions between ANCYL members in Limpopo and Eastern Cape.

It was expected to wrap up its work next week.

Mantashe said the National Working Committee was of the view that tensions among ANCYL members were caused by a collapse of discipline.

"Cases of ill-discipline must be addressed as close as possible to the level of contravention. All the provinces of the ANC must take an active role in re-instilling discipline in the structures of the movement," Mantashe said.

He said the party had directed all ANC provincial structures to work closely with the league and intervene decisively when the need arose.